What would it take for you to transform your life? Could you do it in the span of a year or two? Spurred on by loss, career changes, new hobbies — or even a global pandemic — what if your life could become something new? In these six memoirs, we learn about women who have transformed their lives through the exploration of new ventures and uncharted emotional territory. They realize that it is never too late to stop learning, growing and changing. With humor, heart and a connection to the world around them, these women reflect on how far they have come — and how much farther they can go.
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
In the wake of her husband’s death and her daughter’s sudden illness, bestselling author Joan Didion uses her writing to explore the complicated events she experienced. Didion tells the story from the moment her daughter became ill and was placed on life support, to her husband’s fatal coronary that ended a 40-year partnership in an instant. Her memoir explores family life, marriage, illness and death. This is a deeply personal journey through loss, the extent of memory, and the way life can shift in an instant. Her writing is an attempt to make sense of the grief she lived in for the year after John Didion’s death and puts her most difficult emotions on display.
Unraveling: What I Learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World's Ugliest Sweater by Peggy Orenstein
When COVID struck, Peggy Orenstein decided to take her knitting hobby one step further. She set out to make a piece of clothing from the ground up — from shearing sheep, to dyeing wool, to knitting a sweater. After the loss of her mother and her father’s decline, on top of big changes at home and around the world, she needed a project to tackle. In this funny and fascinating memoir, Orenstein stumbles into issues of climate change and sustainability, racial justice, women’s rights, and the impact of technology. In her year exploring what it takes to make one sweater, she unravels deeper issues with the world and recognizes the triumphs and struggles in her own life.
My What If Year by Alisha Fernandez Miranda
With 40 just around the corner, Alisha Fernandez Miranda decides its time for a break from her professional life and figure out what else is out there. To do so, she takes a look at the past and all of the dream jobs of her youth, exploring the question “What if?” as she explores the path less traveled. From Broadway shows, to fitness regimens, to expensive artwork and hotel dining, Alisha tackles all of the jobs she never got the chance to. Her year of flexibility and trying new things teaches her that life is best lived with curiosity and an open mind, and that failure is often the best way to learn.
Solo Passage: 13 Quests, 13 Questions by Glenda Goodrich
This upcoming memoir details Glenda Goodrich’s quest to explore the wilderness and discover what it has to teach her about life and death, happiness and forgiveness. Her multi-year journey is a spiritual one, taking her into the depths of nature and giving her a deeper connection to the land. Uncertainty and search for meaning in her midlife leads her on adventures that heal her, inspire her, and push her towards forgiveness. From California to Oregon to Washington, Goodrich connects with animals and landscapes that teach her about isolation and restoration.
Trove: A Woman's Search for Truth and Buried Treasure by Sandra A. Miller
A treasure hunt sends Sandra A. Miller on a quest for $10,000 worth of gold coins buried in New York City. Her childhood was filled with treasure hunts of all kinds — games invented by a child seeking refuge from her unhappy childhood. Now, with the confusion of middle age and the shame of craving more than what she already has, Miller turns to another treasure hunt to fulfill her longing for more. Quickly, the search becomes an obsession, and she must reconcile this distraction with a difficult past, unearthing the sorrow and dredging up the truth of what she’s really looking for.
A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings by Helen Jukes
The lives and behaviors of honeybees serve as a jumping point for the exploration of the relationships between human and animal, keeper and bee, collective and individual. Jukes is given a colony of honeybees as a gesture of good luck, sending her on a journey of becoming a beekeeper. She navigates her life as a “keeper” of wild creatures and contemplates her place as the owner of animals with their own laws and logic. This active, yet dangerous, group of bees teaches Jukes a different way of looking at the world as she grapples with a new stage in her life. This memoir is a meditation on uncertainty, hope, solitude, friendship and knowing ourselves better.
